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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: THUNDER v SPURSMay 30, 2012Derek FisherOKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA: Practice Day Q. Can you just tell us how your morning went, and how you feel the guy's attitudes are today? DEREK FISHER: Overall it went well. We discussed things that we would normally discuss after a game, win or loss, in terms of adjustments and improvements, things that we can do better. Just talking about focusing on tomorrow's game. Not worrying about the future. It's just worrying about tomorrow's game, and giving ourselves a chance to win on our home court. Q. Is part of it they took care of business on their home court, now it's time for you guys to do the same? DEREK FISHER: That's part of the way you need to look at it. They won their first two games at home. For our team, we obviously feel that we're capable of winning on our home court against anybody that we play against. But we're not trying to lump Game 3 and Game 4 together, basically. We're just saying we're capable of winning on our home court. We have an opportunity tomorrow night to go out and do it, and that's what we should plan to do. Let everything that comes after that, take care of itself. Let's just focus on tomorrow. Q. You've been in this position with the Lakers down 0‑2 to the Spurs. What do you remember about that series and coming back and winning it, other than just taking it one game at a time? DEREK FISHER: Yeah, I guess it's tough for me to answer, because you took away what I was going to say, because that's truly what we did. We did not assume that we'd win four games in a row, which is basically what we ended up doing in that series. We did just focus on winning Game 3. Then Game 3 turned into an ability to understand what it would take to win, and then you win the next game, and you just keep playing from there. One thing I've learned over all these years and in the postseason is that a lot doesn't really change in terms of winning or losing the last game. Had we won both games in San Antonio, we wouldn't come here saying, oh, we're going to lose tomorrow, and we'll worry about the next game after that. The idea would still be to win the next game. So even though we're down 0‑2, it should not change our mentality of we have another game tomorrow. Let's figure out whatever it is we need to do to win it, and then we'll go from there. Q. Can you talk about the demands of successfully defending the pick‑and‑roll, and how much those demands are heightened with someone like Tony Parker? DEREK FISHER: Yeah, well, it's been a subtle transition for years to where pick‑and‑roll has just become the thing that every team runs anywhere from subtle over the years, to in the last couple of years, it's just that is what it is. It's a pick‑and‑roll league, and it's your ability to guard the pick‑and‑roll and impact the ball, and keep teams from getting penetration that really determine your success. So in particular in the Western Conference whether it's Tony Parker or Chris Paul or a number of great guards that you play against on a nightly basis, the demands are high. But that's what this business requires. That's what it's going to take from our team to be able to find some success against this team, and against any team we play against. It's not a secret. We just have to figure it out. Q. When you're somebody long like Thabo, does it matter how long you are? Does that negate what he is so good at? DEREK FISHER: In some ways it does. By nature, the pick‑and‑roll is two guys against one. So regardless how good a defender you are by yourself, someone comes and sets a pick on you, it's putting you at a disadvantage. So pick‑and‑roll defense is about all five guys, not just a guy on the ball, and not just the big guy guarding the screen. But all five guys being able to shrink the floor and really play together as a team on the defensive end. So that's something we'll have to continue to emphasize and demand from ourselves. Like we said before, a lot of this is not so much about what other teams are doing and not so much about what the Spurs are doing. It's about us and what it is we can do and need to do in order to be successful on our end. Q. Offense is shooting 41% against them. What needs to change for you guys to get either higher percentage shots or are you missing shots that you normally miss? DEREK FISHER: I think it's a little bit of both. We definitely need to do some things better in terms of execution on the offensive end. There are some times when we're taking a little bit too long on our sets, and there are times when we're not moving the basketball as crisply and as fast as we need to be. Then there are other times where we're just missing shots that you're capable of making. But over the course of a game and over the course of a series, in particular, if you're getting good, quality shots, there may be some games where you don't make them. But over the course of the series, you knock them down. But it still comes back to our ability to defend. Whether we're shooting 41% or not. If they're shooting 50‑plus percent, it's irrelevant, so to speak. So we need to continue to focus on our defensive end. Regardless of the percentage, we feel like we've scored enough points in the first two games to give ourselves a chance to win in terms of scoring. But defensively, we haven't done the job, and that's what we'll be focusing on. Q. Defending them, is it something that you've looked at the film and been in those games. Is it something more of what they are doing to you and you guys need to adjust some things, or is it just doing what you normally do better? DEREK FISHER: It's all of it. It's all of the above. You throw it into the hat. It's obviously about one of the best offensive teams in the league doing well what they do, and that is attacking you through screen roll. Spacing the floor well, trusting each other. They're doing a good job of those things, so you have to tip your cap to them. But at the same time, there are some breakdowns that we're having on our end where we could improve and do some things better. Understanding we're not always going to do it perfectly. But a lot of times, just playing with effort and passion and leaving everything on the floor, that makes up for a lot of it. So we're not doubting ourselves. We're obviously disappointed. We don't like to lose, but we still feel good about our ability to follow our game plan. Do some of the things we need to do. Make some adjustments, and give ourselves a chance to win Game 3. Q. It looks like it's so tough to guard those guys, that no matter what you, do they have a counter for. What adjustments can you make to be able to defend them a little bit better? DEREK FISHER: Well, the way you described it, I don't know if there is anything we can do. I guess we should just not show up tomorrow. Q. I'm outside looking in? DEREK FISHER: I got you. No, I mean, look, as we close today one of the things we talked about was just you can talk about X's and O's and adjustments and rotations and all those things. But at the end of the day sometimes you just have to want it. How you define that, how you lay that out as a game plan, I don't know. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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